The Kano State Task Force on Illicit Drugs has destroyed counterfeit drugs worth N4 billion, the Commissioner for Commerce, Industries and Mines Farouk Umar Jubrin said yesterday.

He said in the last two weeks, the task force mopped up illicit drugs worth over N300 million, adding that in the last three years of Governor Rab’iu Kwankwaso’s administration, fake drugs reduced drastically.

Speaking at the Sixth Annual Symposium and Business Summit organised by  the National Association of Industrial Pharmacists, the commissioner said: “Since we came to power in 2011 till date, we have destroyed fake drugs worth over N4 billion. Kano is the hub of the drug trade, while the Southwest and Southeast are the hub of drug manufacturing. Most of these drugs find their way into Kano illegally and the Kwankwaso administration has declared war on fake drugs.”

Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Pharmaceutical Affairs Ali Adamu said: “We have shut down the notorious drug market at the Abubakar Rimi Market. We are aware they still exist and operate in small fragments. We will not relax until we eliminate the menace.”

State Chairman of the National Association of Industrial Pharmacists Bala Maikudi said: “A situation where over 90 per cent of the drugs we consume are imported is unfortunate. We take billions of naira to other countries, creating employment and growing their economies, while ours remains in a shambles.

“This unfortunate scenario explains why the fight against fake and substandard products (drugs) remains unabated, in spite of numerous regulatory agencies and millions of naira spent on it. All these are by-products of not setting our priorities right and by extension not believing in what we can do as a nation.”